After day four of the final Test, I put together a list of all the weird things in this series because I couldn’t stop thinking about how weird it all was.
It reminded me of when I wrote my book on the history of Test cricket. I didn't want to spend too much time on the 2001 or 2005 series that everyone knows. It's not that I didn't love them, I enjoyed both as a fan, before becoming a cricket writer.
It's that I believed there had to be more series like that out there, tucked away, forgotten about, not hyped because the big three weren't there. But in truth, when I went back, I understood more why those series broke through. There have been quite a few times when two evenly matched teams came up against each other. And yet the series was dull, even ones that come down to the last match can be extraordinarily boring.
Like in 1949 New Zealand drew their first series against England, 0-0. They were three day Tests, there was some rain around, and New Zealand did everything they could to ensure they drew each match. It was historic for New Zealand. But it didn't capture the imagination of the English fans, who didn't turn up. Kiwi fans who were following as best they could from the other side of the world.
There are many important series like this, but few like the 1902 ashes. Which started pretty dull, a rain draw which probably saved Australia as they'd been bowled out for 36. The second Test had even more rain, and yeah, I know, I'm not selling this. But the third match Australia won by 143 runs. Still not buying this? Well, Australia won the fourth as well, by three runs. And while they were 2-0 in the series, the last Test England fought back and had a tremendous last wicket partnership to steal it.
This is one of the great series, to have two Tests of this quality, even if the second one was a dead rubber. It is a big deal. And that series was talked up as a great one because of those last two tests for decades to come.
This series didn't have as many close games. Adelaide was looking to be a close match until India made 36 runs. In Melbourne, India won easily enough, sure it as a huge reversal from the previous Test, but as I have written before, that does happen. India's great draw in Sydney was close, but we all kept our blood pressure under control. For much of day five at the Gabba all four results were possible in the Test, and all three for the series. I mean that alone makes everything that happened that day more frenetic. But again it didn't come down to the last ball or wicket, even if it felt like that at times.
Yet here we are, talking about it, and we will be for quite some time, because this series had so much going on. While so many of us were locked in our houses, this series was played by two of the biggest three teams. That means our social media and cricket websites were all talking about it. And it doesn't take long for it to infect us, get inside us.
Underdogs, injuries, collapses, racism, abuse, comedy, overreactions, quality players, and many net bowlers at the end. It doesn't sound like a lot just now, but it felt like a series that none of us will ever forget.
I wonder if one day there will be some smartarse like me looking back and saying, wait, none of these Tests were close, sure the series came back to the last day, and yes, the underdogs who were battered and nearly broken won, but is this it?
And maybe we all got swept up in it; perhaps it wasn't as legendary as we thought. But locked on our sofas, away from family and friends, with the memory of no cricket still seared into our brains, this got to us. If we got swept up in this wave, it is because it was tidal. And maybe looking back on it with sober eyes it will feel entirely different for us. I'm not sure that will happen. But I can see people looking back and not being entirely sure why we are still all talking about this.
And for some of us, we'll try to explain it, Covid, the time sport went away and then this bloody series. But really all we'll be saying is, you weren't there, man. You weren't there.
Weirdly, neither were most of us, but we lived this. Whatever it was, it’s ours.
But ... because hardly anyone was there, it makes it an asterisk series for me. It's a COVID-affected series that had a unique impact on crowd participation - that intangible factor that makes winning away from home extra hard. It isn't there in COVID-time cricket. England will benefit from absent crowds in India. This series was ok but it didn't have the one thing that most touring teams have to experience. Thus, an enormous independent vaiable was removed from this series. It lacked that invisible, co-created tsunami that boosts home team performance and challenges the opposition. In fact, it proved that limited, reduced-capacity crowds can work as a disadvantage to the home side i.e Sydney. Less is more in a lot of life, but clearly not when it comes to Sydney or MCG crowds. White-noise, atmospheric sound becomes a clearly heard racist bogan that gets ejected and detracts from the home side. Another thing that detracted from this series as a spectacle was Australian tactics - basically dumb and devoid of nuance. It wasn't a great tactical battle & it degenerated into a bowling-machine type of bumper attack on sub-par wicket after sub-par wicket. It suited India entirely. A great series features great performances from both sides right throughout. This time however, very few Australian players performed well at all & only one amazing performance occurred (Adelaide). None come away from the supposedly 'greatest series of all time' looking like better players for having been involved. My final caveat is that a great series will feature high-quality fielding. There were more glaring drops & costly fielding errors in this series however, than there were highlights. India's fielding was especially poor throughout this series. This actually proves to me that India didn't need a 'great' performance to beat this current Australian side. They played well, but they didn't actually have to play 'great'. India proved that it didn't require 'great' cricket to beat the JL/Paine era Australain side with our obviously unimproved & downright embarassing team culture, our homogenous pace unit, our overhyped off-spinner & our top six that can't bat against them. At no point during these four Tests did it ever feel that Australia were on top. Adelaide was an unexpected freak occurrence that only served to mask the same old batting problem. At no point in the next three matches did it feel that Australia were the better team. A great series goes one way then the other. This one had a freak occurrence followed by the familiar steady pattern of - We can't bowl them out in Melbourn nor Sydney. We couldn't last time either. Now we can add Brisbane to that list. They can, they do & they will bowl us out here. It happened last time & now it has happened again regardless of Smith & Warner. I actually think the last series here in 2018/19 had two matches (1st & 2nd Tests) that were higher in quality than any of the matches played this series. It should remind us now, of how good that Australian win in Perth truly was. Do you agree with any of this caveat-laden rant Jarrod, or am I just scrambling for excuses as a deeply scarred and now frightened fan of the baggy green?
Even though the test matches wasnt close... no team was able to dominate... as the other side kept punching bag... maybe thats why